Ken Doughty-Who’s he?

Somebody mentioned in a letter that many members do not really
know
much about myself and how the SBD came to be. So, if you will
forgive
my self-indulgence, here is a short “CV” and introduction.

I sometimes think that members imagine me as a scholarly
type,
mid-sixties, retired and doing this to fill up my time. Nothing could
be
farther from the truth!
I was born in South London (Lewisham) in the early 1950s the
youngest, and only boy, of four children. Both of my parents’ families
had lived in the Greenwich area. When I was three we moved north of the
Thames and I grew up in the East End of London and Essex.
Cockneys say “South (sarf?) of the River’s a different country”, so
I would never be considered an East Ender. There has always been a
rivalry
between the opposite river banks!
Throughout my childhood I had a lot of contact with Greenwich and
spent
many good times there in the park or museum (it was free then!) or
just
walking by the Thames and looking at the Cutty Sark , the old tea
clipper
kept on display there.
It is still a wonderful place to visit and outshines some of
the better known tourist spots in London . At the time many aunts
and uncles still lived in that area, as did my eldest sister. I
loved
passing the beautiful buildings of the Museum, Palace, Naval College
and
Observatory as I went to visit them by bus.
Many non-UK members may find it very hard to believe that up until
fairly recent times the majority of working people in Britain did
not have cars, or for that matter, telephones! Mum never even had
a fridge until the late 1960s!
The schools I attended were fairly average, but I was blessed with
having two superb teachers during this time. Mr Owen, who taught me at
Shaftesbury Junior school in Forest Gate ( E.7.) deserves the ultimate
praise for his radical teaching methods. Every lesson was fun and
everything
he taught “stuck”. I still remember singing the seven times table to
the
tune of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River” at the top of my voice with
the
39 other boys in his class. His methods were a complete opposite to
those
of the other strict, ex-military teachers who controlled
with
slipper and ruler. From the north of England, his accent was not one
heard
often in those parts. He was kind and he cared!
Miss Dove, an elderly, very old-fashioned teacher taught me whilst
I was taking my GCEs. My father was seriously ill and this caused me a
lot of absence. Due to her faith in me she did her best to ensure I
achieved
what I could, and suggested I should try to go into a job where I could
continue with my education.
I have worked for British Telecom since leaving school and underwent
further education with them. I was a Technical Supervisor at a Business
Fault Reception Centre leading a team of Business Fault Managers.
I dealt with fault diagnosis on Systems, PSTNs and ISDNs, and technical
queries, customer problems and complaints and completed an NVQ to
become
an Assessor at Customer Service Level 3. I have recently taken an early
retirement.
I married in 1980. My wife Sandra, was born and raised in Hertford,
We have two children, Emma aged 9and Sophia aged 7. My main hobby
until I started family history research was music, playing guitar and
singing
(some say badly!). I have worked in cabaret with many well known
artistes
, and can lay claim to appearing on stage at the London Palladium.

The Society
I started my family history research about 1990 and found that my
gGF (born 1829) was a brushmaker. I decided to check out his
trade
and this led to my discovering a lot of little known information which
led to my writing an article for Family Tree magazine.
It is the response to this article, and my locating of even more
information,
that caused the SBD to be formed. I envisaged that the SBD would
work by receiving and publishing members’ own articles and
interests,
plus any details of other non-related brushmakers they found during
their
research that could be of interest to other members.
When the Society was first formed in 1993 we had about thirty members.
Most of these are still with us!
The first Journal was produced on an Amiga, which was better than most
PCs at the time, and a new 24 pin dot-matrix printer, which was not
really
up to the job. It used to take two or three minutes to print each
page. The early Journals, although poorly produced compared to current
Journals, are still in demand and can provide surprises and revelations
to those who order them.

The Self Help Theory
The theory behind how the SBD should work is simply this: “This
brushmaker may not be anything to do with my research, but he could be
the missing ancestor a fellow member has been seeking for years, so I
will
send the reference in to the SBD. Another member may well do the
same with information on the ancestor I’m looking for ”.
This concept has resulted in many successes, so send in any brushmakers
you spot whilst looking through censuses, directories or parish records
etc. Try to provide as full a reference to the source as possible
to help those who may want to follow the lead.

Quirky?
Due to its widely spread membership it was realised early on that this
could not be a conventional Society with various Secretaries and
Officials,
as so few members live within easy reach of me, so I undertake
all
functions:- membership secretary, dealing with enquiries, treasurer,
editor,
general dogsbody! I enjoy it immensely, even though it is hard work
sometimes.
Unfortunately, sometimes life throws other things in our paths, and
production of the Journals gets delayed. Our early members, the
majority
of whom have stayed with us since the first Journals, have always been
prepared to make allowances for this and I am sure newer members will
too.
You can consider the Spring Journal appearing in Autumn to be part of
the
Society’s “quirkiness”. I hope this has given you a better idea
of
who I am and what has
gone before. I added the picture so you will know me if we meet and
will be ready to take cover should I start singing!